by David Millikin
SYDNEY, Sept 9 (AFP) - Australia vowed not to be intimidated by terrorism after a deadly car bombing at its embassy in Jakarta Thursday thrust terrorism and national security to the forefront of campaigning for elections next month.
The mid-morning blast in Jakarta, which killed at least eight people and injured more than 160, appeared to confirm fears that Islamic militants could target Australia in hopes of preventing the re-election of Prime Minister John Howard, a key ally in last year's US-led invasion of Iraq.
Howard immediately ordered his foreign minister, Alexander Downer, and senior police officials to Jakarta to monitor developments while top defense, police and security chiefs met in the capital Canberra to discuss implications of the attack.
With general elections set for October 9, Howard's conservative coalition is neck-and-neck in opinion polls with the center-left Labor Party, whose leader Mark Latham has vowed to pull Australian troops out of Iraq if he wins.
The Jakarta attack brought immediate comparisons to a wave of commuter train bombings blamed on the al-Qaeda terror network that killed 191 people in Madrid just days before national elections last March.
The conservative government of prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, another Iraq ally of Washington, lost the election to the opposition Socialists, who promptly withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq.
Howard interrupted his campaigning in Melbourne to hold a lengthy press conference on the attack, which killed no Australians but caused extensive damage to the embassy.
While saying it was too early to link the bombing to the elections, Howard was defiant about any threats from Al-Qaeda or its southeast Asian branch Jemaah Islamiyah.
"This is not a nation that is going to be intimidated by acts of terrorism," he declared.
Howard and Latham observed a brief truce in their election battle, with the Labor leader offering his "full support" to the government in dealing with the crisis and Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd joining Downer on the trip to Jakarta.
"It's an attack that is appalling in its nature and we need to deal with the consequences as best we can," Latham said.
Howard, whose government has spent billions of dollars on counter-terrorism measures and has made national security a key pillar of its campaign platform, said he had no information about an increased security threat inside Australia.
But earlier Thursday, police in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, announced a raft of new security measures ahead of the elections.
Mass casualty disaster teams and six ambulance trucks were assigned to strengthen security while multi-agency rescue teams of doctors, engineers and police were put on standby, NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said.
"We have increased measures to detect potential terrorist activity, and are ready to deal with a major incident if the need arises," Moroney said.
Downer and terrorism experts said the key suspect in Thursday's attack was Jemaah Islamiyah, the group blamed for an October 2002 car bombing on Bali that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian tourists, and a bombing last year at Jakarta's Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people.
Independent analysts said the timing of the attack ahead of Australia's election and just two days before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US was unlikely to be simple coincidence.
"The timing is too coincidental for it to be other than trying to influence one way or the other the Australian election," said terrorism expert Keith Suter.
"Whether or not that will work against the government as happened in Spain or work in favor is not clear," he said.
Suter said voters could blame Howard for making Australia a target with his strongly pro-US foreign policy and decision to join the Iraq invasion.
"On the other hand, it may mean that many Australians will feel so insecure that they will prefer to stick with the current Howard government because they simply don't want to take a gamble with an incoming Labor government," he said.